Nepal Peace Pact Signed; Maoists to Take Part in Elections

By TILAK P. POKHAREL and SOMINI SENGUPTA; Tilak P. Pokharel reported from Katmandu, and Somini Sengupta from New Delhi.

Published: November 22, 2006

To end a crippling war that raged for more than 10 years and killed thousands, Maoist rebels in Nepal signed a peace deal with the government on Tuesday night, with a pledge to lock up their guns, at least for now, and let voters decide the future of the country.

The accord promises to bring the rebels, who control vast swaths of the destitute countryside, into the political mainstream. Whether the Maoists, who once functioned as a political party but abandoned the electoral path for armed struggle, will now play by the rules of parliamentary democracy is the most important question.

''It is the beginning of a new beginning,'' the Maoist leader, known by his nom de guerre, Prachanda, said after signing the agreement in Katmandu, the capital.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said: ''This has given a message to the international community and terrorists all over the world that no conflict can be resolved by guns. It can be done by dialogue.''

The peace agreement paves the way for the fulfillment of one of the Maoists' chief demands: elections to decide whether Nepal will remain a monarchy. The interim government, which the rebels have agreed to join, will organize elections next year for an assembly that will determine whether Nepal will remain a kingdom and if so, what kind.

The Maoists have repeatedly promised to run in the elections and abide by the results. On Saturday, during a visit to New Delhi, Prachanda reiterated that pledge, saying that even if Nepal voted to keep the monarchy, his cadres would continue to press for its abolition -- but would do so peacefully.

The agreement signed Tuesday in Katmandu came a year after the rebels teamed up with Nepal's main political parties to topple King Gyanendra, who dismissed the country's elected politicians and took control of the state early last year.

In April, street protests blessed by the Maoists prompted Gyanendra to turn over control to the elected Parliament, which had been suspended four years earlier. This week a government-appointed panel found the king responsible for rights abuses against the pro-democracy protesters and called for him to be punished.

After the king yielded to Parliament, it was swift to take vital powers away from him, including control of the army, and engaged in peace talks with the rebels, who declared a unilateral cease-fire. Under the peace accord, the Maoists will sequester their armed fighters in cantonment sites, and the Nepalese Army will return to its barracks.

Ian Martin, the United Nations envoy to Nepal, said in a statement on Tuesday that agreement had been reached on the locations of the cantonment sites. He added, ''Today's agreement promises to convert the cease-fire into long-term peace.''

The rebels, still apparently distrustful of politicians and the palace, have not laid down their arms entirely. They have agreed to lock up their weapons but are holding on to the keys. The United Nations is to monitor the safekeeping of weapons through a system of closed-circuit cameras.

Human rights groups have accused the rebels of continuing to recruit members in the countryside, including children, but the Maoists have denied the charge.

The Maoists say they want their troops to be integrated into a new national army. How many and in what fashion remain unclear. ''We are not dogmatic Communists, and we are prepared to change and debate our beliefs with anybody,'' Prachanda was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The rebels, who called the conflict a ''people's war,'' began with the aim of establishing a Communist state. Maoist insurgencies have blossomed in South Asia long after the demise of Mao and his ideology in China.

In India, a loose confederation of Maoist rebels are active in a swath of territory from the jungles of the far south all the way north to the border with Nepal. The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, recently described them as the country's most pressing internal security threat.

The peace accord in Nepal includes a provision to establish a truth and reconciliation commission ''to find facts about those involved in committing serious human rights violations and those involved in crime against humanity during the armed conflict.''

Within minutes of its signing, crowds of well-wishers lined the streets and lighted candles as they waited for Prime Minister Koirala's motorcade to pass.

''Both sides give up state of war; it's celebration time,'' Kanak Dixit, the editor of Himal magazine, said by telephone amid hoots and hollers on the street. ''The only challenge that now remains is that the Maoists, in particular their militia, be held to account by the peace deal.''

Basanta Sharma, 35, a student, waited for three hours outside the Birendra International Convention Center for news of the signing. ''What else can be there which makes us so happy?'' he said. ''It seems the common man can now live in peace, work and earn their living.''

Photo: In May, Maoist rebels in south-central Nepal listened to their commander explain the cease-fire that was a step toward yesterday's peace accord. (Photo by Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)